An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster
An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster (also known as''' An American Tail IV: Fievel meets the Night Monster''' and''' An American Tail 4') is the second direct-to-video follow-up to An American Tail and the fourth and final film in the An American Tail series, starring Thomas Dekker as the young Fievel Mousekewitz. This film was animated in Japan by Tama Production Co. Ltd and it was released on December 9, 1999 in Germany and July 25, 2000 in the United States. Plot Fievel, his friend Tony and his sister Tanya all get jobs at the local newspaper, where the audience is introduced to Nellie, who wants to be an important reporter, but only gets small assignments, as if she were a secretary to Reed, the newspaper's editor. Throughout the film, Tanya tries to win Reed's heart, while Tony tries to get noticed by Reed and promoted to a reporter. Like in the previous movies, where a mouse installation is directly below its human installation counterpart, the newspaper offices the mice work in is directly underneath the newspaper offices the humans work in. Nellie gets a chance when she is assigned to report mice who disappear overnight into holes that open up on their floor all over New York. Reed makes up a, as Nellie calls it, ''so-called monster that lives under Manhattan and takes mice away during the night to add more excitement to the otherwise unimportant story, intending to sell more papers. The night monster creates fears among the readers, as could be expected. Fievel begins having nightmares that cause him to lose sleep because of his fear of the monster; the film opens up with Fievel having a dream about being chased by what he thinks the monster looks like. When, through Tanya, he is assigned the job of following Nellie and drawing up interperatations of what the monster looks like based on witness testimony, this makes his insomnia all the worse. A particularly suspicious miniature French poodle named Madame Mousey, who has started living among the mice about this time, appears at every crime scene, claiming to be a fortune teller. The heroes finally decide to investigate her by means of the dog council that meets at Central Park. They also search down one of the holes, which leads directly to a group of cats known as the infamous Outlaw Cats hiding in the sewers. Also, all the mice that had disappeared are being held in wood cages there, to be sold off to other cats and eaten. The night monster itself, a mechanic device with ghastly flashing pictures and a circular saw, is revealed in full when it attacks the mice newspaper office and printing press to prevent them from printing the truth, which they had just discovered. A great chase scene takes place throughout both the mouse and the human newspaper offices. Reed reveals that he was in love with Nellie all along, leaving Tanya intensely disheartened. When all the cats seem to be under control, the dog council appears just as they're regaining consciousness and chase them all away, taking Madame Mousey with them. The last scene takes place at the beach, where the audience is told that the dog council had chosen for the French poodle (who was the mastermind behind the night monster all along) a punishment worse than prison: returning her to her owner, Mrs. Abernathy. Mama Mousekewitz, Fever's mother, surmises saying that now that the mystery has been cleared up, Fievel may finally go to sleep, only to turn around and find him with Yasha, his sister, already asleep on the beach towel. Cast * Thomas Dekker as Fievel Mousekewitz * Lacey Chabert as Tanya Mousekewitz * Nehemiah Persoff as Papa Mousekewitz * Jane Singer as Mama Mousekewitz * Dom DeLuise as Tiger * Pat Musick as Tony Toponi and Mrs. Abernathy * Susan Boyd as Nellie Brie * Robert Hays as Reed Daley * Candi Milo as Madame Mousey * John Mariano as Twitch * Jeff Bennett as Slug * Joe Lala as Bootlick * Sherman Howard as Haggis * John Garry as Lone Woof Songs * Get the Facts (performed by Thomas Dekker and Susan Boyd) * Creature de la Nuit (performed by Candi Milo, Jeff Bennett and Joe Lala) * Who Will (Thomas Dekker, Susan Boyd, Dom DeLuise and Pat Musick) * Somewhere Out There International releases For information about international dubs and releases, An American Tail: The Mystery of the Night Monster/International. Category:1999 films Category:1990s American animated films Category:American musical films Category:Films produced by Larry Latham Category:Films directed by Larry Latham Category:Film scores by Michael Tavera Category:Film scores by James Horner Category:American sequel films Category:Direct-to-video sequel films Category:Universal Pictures animated films Category:Half-Disney Television Animation Category:Non-Disney animated films Category:DVD Category:VHS